Ryan Dempster has to be feeling pretty good about himself at this point. He struck out 11 Friday in beating the Giants. It was his third straight quality start, as he allowed a total of two runs in six innings.

And lowered his ERA to 6.71.

That’s how bad Dempster’s April was. He gave up at least four runs in each of his six outings, culminating in a career low April 28 against the Dodgers. In that meltdown, he was charged with seven runs in one-third of an inning, taking his ERA to 9.58.

Now the long trial to bring it down has begun. He lowered it to 8.05 by holding the Dodgers to one run in seven innings on May 3. On May 8, he gave up two runs over seven innings against the Reds, putting him at 7.20. The margins keep getting smaller, though. Friday’s win knocked him down only half a run.

Dempster finished last year with a 3.85 ERA in 215 1/3 innings.

To finish that well this year, he’d have to give up 54 runs in 164 1/34 innings the rest of the way, a 2.96 mark.

In 2009, he came in at 3.65 in 200 IP.

To match that, he’d have to allow 43 runs in 149 innings, a 2.60 mark.

In 2008, Dempster came in at 2.96 over 206 2/3 innings.

That seems unreachable. He’d have to pitch 155 2/3 innings at a 1.73 mark to duplicate that number.

Dempster is certainly on the right path now. His 11 strikeouts Friday were his most since June 11, 2008. His slider and, more inportantly, his confidence are back.

The Oakland Athletics ballpark saga has dragged on for years and years and years. They’ve considered San Jose, Fremont and at least three locations in Oakland as potential new ballpark sites. The whole process has lasted almost as long as the Braves and Rangers played in their old parks before building new ones.

In the past several months the Athletics’ “stay in Oakland” plan has gained momentum. At one point the club thought it had an agreement to build a new place near Peralta/Laney College in downtown Oakland. There have been hiccups with that, so two other sites — Howard Terminal, favored by city officials — and the current Oakland Coliseum site have remained in play. There are pros and cons to each of these sites, as we have discussed in the past.

One consideration not mentioned before was mentioned by team president David Kaval yesterday: sea level rise due to climate change. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Kaval mentioned twice that the Howard Terminal site would have to take into account sea-level rise and transportation concerns — and he said there have been conversations with the city and county and the Joint Powers Authority about developing the Coliseum site.

The Howard Terminal/Jack London Square area of Oakland has been identified as susceptible to dramatically increased flooding as a result of projected sea level rise due to climate change. On the other side of the bay both the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors have had to consider sea level rise in their stadium/arena development plans. Now it’s the Athletics’ turn.

Fifteen of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams play in coastal areas and another five of them play near the Great Lakes. While some of our politicians don’t seem terribly concerned about it all, people and organizations who will have skin the game 10, 20 and 50 years from now, like the Oakland Athletics, are taking it into account.